The Health Benefits of Hemp Fabric Will Shock You

Throughout history hemp has been one of the most helpful plants to the human race. Hemp has the power to feed, fuel, and even heal.

Clothing and other things made of synthetic fabric these days used to be made from hemp, which is much more durable than synthetic fibers.

Durability aside, hemp fabric is also much healthier in two very significant ways that may surprise you.

If you are looking to live a healthier lifestyle (which I certainly hope you are), you should consider the health benefits of hemp fabric and clothing.

The Growing Problem of Micro-Plastics in our Water and Food

A significant portion of clothing and other fabrics sold these days are made up of petroleum-based synthetic fibers.

Every time you wash your clothes or sheets or other fabrics made from synthetic fibers, tiny strands called ‘micro-plastics’ or ‘synthetic microfibers’ fall off the clothing into the water, which is then washed away into the sewer system at the end of the wash cycle.

Because the micro-plastics are so small (less than 1 millimeter across), they cannot be filtered out. The micro-plastics are consumed by anything and everything that consumes water on this planet, which is a bad thing.

This is because plastic takes so long to decompose in the ocean. It’s estimated that plastic can take as long as 600 years to decompose in the ocean, but no one knows for sure.

Micro-plastics can come from a variety of things, such as plastic bottles or bags that have polluted bodies of water. Notably, micro-plastic fibers have been referred to as ‘the biggest environmental problem you’ve never heard of’ by The Guardian.

The clothing company Patagonia conducted a study which looked at how much micro-plastic fiber was shed from clothing during the washing process. The study found the following:

The analyses showed that the top-load washing machine trials had 5.3 times the microfiber shedding of the front-load machine trials and that aging of jackets increased the mass of fibers shed by 1.8 times.

The investigation revealed that microfibers are a pervasive pollutant and could be affecting ecosystems and human health.